January 2010: Anna Kendrick

Age: 24.  

Provenance: Portland, Maine.  

It’s a vampire world and we’re just dying in it: Kendrick made her name in the original Twilight movie—“I had no idea; none of us knew”—as mere mortal Jessica Stanley, “Bella’s friend from school.” She reprises the role in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, in theaters now.  

And for the adults in the audience ... Kendrick shines as George Clooney’s tightly wound underling in Jason Reitman’s well-timed dramedy about corporate cost-cutting, Up in the Air, which is already generating Oscar buzz. “I was shooting them both at the same time,” says Kendrick. “It was great because my character in Up in the Air is so rigid, and it was fun to go to Vancouver [to the set of New Moon] and play the silliest girl on the planet!” —Krista Smith

Photograph by Greg Lotus.